Korean Patent No. 10-1312221 (registered on Sep. 17, 2013) discloses a “water jet spray nozzle, a water jet system, and a method for controlling the water jet system.”
The water jet system is configured to include: a spray nozzle configured such that the sectional shape of an end thereof through which water is sprayed is elliptical; a spray nozzle support configured such that the spray nozzle is fixedly mounted on the front end thereof and a path through which water to be supplied to the spray nozzle passes is formed therein; a driven bevel gear configured to be mounted on the outside surface of the spray nozzle; a driving bevel gear configured to engage with the gear of the driven bevel gear; a servo-motor configured to be coupled with the driving bevel gear, and to rotate the driving bevel gear; and a control unit configured to control the driving of the servo-motor. The control unit controls the direction of rotation in which the spray nozzle is rotated in accordance with the direction of the movement of the spray nozzle. A groove wider than a groove formed by a conventional circular nozzle is allowed to be formed when a pattern is formed on the surface of a stone panel, and the width of a groove to be formed on the stone panel is adjusted by adjusting the angle of the nozzle through the rotation of the nozzle.
However, the water jet system does not disclose a method of cutting out a multi-sided continuously patterned stone panel.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional method for manufacturing a multi-sided (multi-straight sided or multi-curved sided) stone panel is a nesting machining method using a water jet, and cuts a multi-sided stone panel, such as the multi-straight sided stone panel 3 of FIG. 1 or the multi-curved sided stone panel 5 of FIG. 2, out of an original stone plate 1 according to the shape thereof individually.
In other words, a nesting machining method using a water jet is configured to cut out a multi-sided stone panel individually by using a dual machining method in which vertical cutting and lateral cutting are combined with each other.
However, the above-described conventional method for manufacturing a multi-sided stone panel has a machining speed of 0.3 meters per minute in the case of granite stone having a thickness of 20 mm, requires a long machining time, has a high defect rate because a corner is easily damaged during cornering work, generates a large quantity of remnants (scraps) after the machining of a multi-sided stone panel, and has a small product market due to the high cost and low efficiency thereof.